Dissolvable Stents

Cardiovascular disease is a serious condition that causes the death of approximately 900,000 individuals every year, accounting for 40% of all deaths. Cardiovascular disease can include coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, arrhythmia, and a variety of other conditions. These conditions can be life threatening if not managed properly. While many of these conditions can be managed with medications, some of these typically require surgical intervention such as cardiac bypass. In the past several decades, percutaneous methods like angioplasty and stenting have become more common. In these methods, access is gained using a femoral artery, and the vessel of interest can be widened using a balloon or a stent. A stent, as this article discusses, is a wire mesh tube that can help prop the artery open, decrease its chances of narrowing, and improve blood flow. Some stents can be coated with medication to decrease the likelihood of further coronary complications. These medications most commonly include anticoagulants, which prevent blood clots, myocardial infarctions, and strokes.

These metal stents are problematic because introducing metal and other foreign objects can promote the formation of blood clots and the development of scar tissue at the stent site. As a result of this issue, bioresorbable stents were created with the intention of helping the artery heal in a more natural manner with minimal scar tissue and other complications.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first bioresorbable stent just recently in July of 2016, calling it “Absorb.” However, it seems that certain cardiologists like Dr. Mukherjee are skeptical of these bioresorbable stents for multiple reasons. In a recent clinical trial, Absorb was linked to an increased risk of blood clots forming on the actual stent. These clots could detach from the stents and cause a heart attack, stroke, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolus, or other type of clot that compromises an area of the body. Furthermore, bioresorbable stents are more costly, take longer to insert, and are no safer than metal stents. In order to be more effective, future bioresorbable stents will need to be absorbed quicker, and built with thinner but stronger materials.

As Dr. Campisi would say, more research needs to be done...

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170406143847.htm